City Lights: Chapter 2

Chapter: 2 Characters (in order of appearance): Hee Jin* and mystery idol *indicates original character Words: 1,048 Edits: 3 Added: January 29, 2011

Tuesday, July 13, 3:57pm
Seoul, South Korea

Hee Jin was lying on her back in the middle of her apartment, moaning from the sweltering heat of the afternoon. She had been in Korea for only five days and was already sick of it. She got jetlag the first day and the flu the next two days. Not to mention she was dying from the summer heat and boredom the entire time.

She had sent a message to Jin Chul the day before her arrival in Korea. She met him online a year ago and it wasn't long before they became best friends. She had told him everything about herself and in turn, he did likewise. The only thing she kept from him was her gender. She had originally put on her online profile that she was a male but after she got to know him, she took it off and left it blank. She had meant to switch it to female but chickened out a millisecond before. She felt guilty and stupid but hoped that when she did tell him, their friendship would be strong enough for him to accept it. She was starting to think she was wrong.


Hee Jin rolled onto her stomach and glanced up at her laptop. She groaned as she forced her lazy body to get up from the floor and walk over to her desk. She refreshed the webpage. Nope. Still nothing. There wasn't even a tinge of hope left. She had checked her emails so frequently since her last message that her hope for his reply eventually evaporated.

With a deep sigh, she laid back onto the floor. Depressed and lonely. That's how she felt. Her parents and older brother were still back home but she came to Korea regardless. She saved up for months so she could come visit her homeland during her vacation time. Her plans of hanging with Jin Chul went out the window the moment she arrived in Korea and realized he hadn't replied to her message. She could visit her grandmother who lived nearby but she still had five weeks of vacation left and knew she'd have little time to do what she wanted if she went too early. Her grandmother always tried to spend as much time as possible with her only granddaughter. She'd never escape.

Just as Hee Jin lay on the floor, there was a knock at the door. Grumpily, she got back up and slowly made her way to the door. When she opened it she was surprised to find a very handsome looking man standing there. He was grinning which made her feel oddly weird.

"May I help you?" she asked nicely.

The man flipped his stylish hair out of his face and then stared intently at her. "I noticed you just moved in."

"And?" Hee Jin replied matter-of-factly. Her response didn't seem to faze him.

He continued to stare at her, making her feel strange like as if he was about to pounce on her. He continued, "And, I thought you looked like a very interesting person." He paused as if waiting for some sort of reaction from her. She stared blankly back at him so he went on, "I wanted to know what kind of person you were so I just had to meet you." He smiled sweetly and brushed his hair out of his face again.

Hee Jin raised her eyebrows. He just "had" to meet me? Then it dawned on her. Was he flirting with her? That was a first. Back home, none of the guys she knew flirted with her. Not even the Asian guys. Now she was standing in front of some guy who deliberately went out of his way to hit on her. And what a fine job he was doing.

She snickered to herself. The man took courage from this, thinking his flirting was actually working. He leaned in closer to Hee Jin and stared directly into her eyes. "So," he said seductively, "How about we get to know each other better? Me and my friends are having a little get-together tonight in my apartment; why don't you stop by?"

"No thanks," Hee Jin replied flatly.

The man stood up straight again. Ignoring Hee Jin's rejection, he went on, "There will of course be other girls."

Hee Jin smiled sweetly, "I'm still not interested."

The man's smiled disappeared but he remained undefeated. "We'll be playing games." Hee Jin, still smiling, shook her head but the man continued, "And watching movies and eating lots of delicious food and snacks, and," he finished, "Us guys are paying for the alcohol."

Hee Jin's eyes got big and she bit her lower lip as if considering. The man grinned in triumph. He leaned in close again, "Well? What do you think?"

Hee Jin smirked, making the man smile even brighter. "I knew it!" he exclaimed with delight. "I knew you couldn't pass up such a perfect opportunity."

Still smirking, Hee Jin said, "Sorry to burst your bubble but I don't drink. Nor will I ever. I already said I'm not interested and nothing you can say will change my mind." The man's face fell. He opened his mouth to speak but Hee Jin cut him off, "Thank you for the invitation but I'm really busy. So, goodbye." The man didn't move so Hee Jin stepped further into her place and shut the door.

She felt kind of bad about her rude behavior but she had seen his type before. But he was definitely one to keep going until he got what he wanted. A couple of her friends had the problem of attracting those kinds of guys and she saw how bad it got when the girls didn't push back hard enough. She'd be surprised if that was the end of him hitting on her. No. She knew he'd do it again. He'd eventually get sick of being rejected and leave her alone. She hoped it would be soon.

Hee Jin went back to lying on the floor. However, as soon as she lied down, she heard a ding sound from the computer. She jumped up and ran over to it and saw she got an instant message. It was from Jin Chul.

MSTRMND_61: Let's meet up.

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Author's Notes:

Know who the mystery idol is? Try and guess. His name won't be revealed for a while so keep guessing. Fun fact: Jin Chul's username MSTRMND was inspired by B2ST/BEAST's Mastermind song. Edit: "Her parents and older brothers..."was changed to "Her parents and older brother..." Hee Jin only has one brother.